Tracey Thorn with a fan who’d brought an original Everything But the Girl Poster to sign

It was 1982, I’d bought a black coat, black boots, PVC trousers, cheap blue hair gel and a Bauhaus single, then Tracey Thorn released ‘A Distant Shore’ and saved me from now hanging around town in my late-forties looking very hot in a black PVC trench coat with every conceivable part of my face pierced or tattooed.

Instead I wear red trousers, thanks Tracey.

Thorn had released a mini album of simplicity that soon allowed her the plough her trade alongside Aztec Camera, The Go-Betweens and Orange Juice. Continue reading →

The Death Cafe. “Everyone welcome but not recommended for anyone recently bereaved.” I’m wondering if I should go to this on Monday 12 May as my cat died a few weeks ago.

She was twenty years old and this was, I’m told, a ‘good innings’. But she was part of our family for nearly half my life so our cat-lessness is making us sad.

But what’s this got to do with the launch of the twenty-first Swindon Festival of Literature, yesterday, noon, at Swindon Central Library?

Funny you should ponder. Sandwiched between Nathan Filer (The Shock of the Fall) and Kate Adie (Needs No Introduction), is the Death Cafe, a discussion about death and dying. You may partake of rich tea but perhaps not sympathy. Bring not your raw nerves; bring instead your pragmatism. Continue reading →